Consumed
by LaurenVera
Summary: The aftermath of the Season Three Finale. How will everyone cope? Please R&R. Rated T for future chapters.


**Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Vampire Diaries.**

**AN: I hope I can help you with your VD withdraws. I know chapter one doesn't really take place _after_ the finale, besides for a little at the very end. This is in some ways key set-up. The real action will kick in in chapter two. I hope you enjoy it! **

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***

* * *

"Where is she?"

There's no pain in his voice. He's got a one track mind. _Get to Elena_. His eyes are storming, his jaw tight. Nothing seems to be registering with him. Nothing but the absence of her heartbeat, the missing _thump-thump_ that made his world go round.

"No." Meredith is delusional if she thinks _she_ can stop him right now. "Damon! Wait-"

"_Where is she?"_

"Wait! You need to know! When Jeremy brought Elena in here earlier on her injuries were worse than I let on. It wasn't a concussion. It was cerebella haemorrhage. Bleeding on the brain."

"What are you saying?" His attention's slipping, his chest is heaving. _No_…

"He was so worried I didn't want to tell him but… I-I helped her." Her pleading eyes stare up at him. "She needed my help."

His knees wobble underneath him.

…_No._

* * *

"_Why do you have to say it with my necklace?" Fear twists her features._

"_Because… what I'm about to say is, probably the most selfish thing I've said in my life."_

_There is a sea of possibilities of where this is heading. It's frightening her. "Damon, don't go there." She's scared of him. Of _loving_ him._

"_I just need to say it once," he pleads. "You just need to hear it." She _knows_ this. Oh god, she's supposed to know this! She can't shake the tip-of-the-tongue feeling his words bring._

"_I love you. And it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you. And why you can't know this… I don't deserve you. But my brother does."_

_His lips on her forehead, his cool fingers brushing along her cheekbone… It feels like heaven against her flushed skin. She feels like she's finally found her way home._

_But then, her vision is clouding over. Damon's touch is fading. The sound of his voice is slipping away…_

_The tingling begins at the tips of her fingers. It starts out slowly, but it spreads viciously, clawing it's way up her arm, tickling her spine and numbing her to no end._

"_God, I wish you didn't have to forget this."_

_She's being ripped away. _

_She's there long enough to hear a final whisper spouting from his lips in the hazy darkness. "But you do."_

_The next thing she's aware of is wind. Whipping through her hair. _

_And then _he's _in front of her. "_Katherine_." _

"_Um… I'm Elena." Awkward…_

"_Oh, you just look…" He's struggling to explain. "I'm sorry, you just _really _remind me of someone. I'm Damon." She can't help but admire him. His jet-black hair that falls every which way over his forehead, his crisp leather jacket and his muscular frame. Oh god, his eyes…_

"_Not to be rude or anything, Damon, but it's kind of creepy that you're out here in the middle of nowhere."_

"_You're one to talk. You're out here all by yourself."_

"_It's Mystic Falls", she explains and shrugs. "Nothing bad ever happens here." Yeah, nothing at all…_

"_I got into a fight with my boyfriend," she blurts out suddenly. Matt. She remembers Matt, with his pitiful truck, his blazing blue eyes and his inability to make tea. …Wait…_

"_About what? May I ask?"_

_She sighs. "Life. The future. He's got it all mapped out." _

"_You don't want it?" _

"_I don't know what I want."_

_She doesn't know what she wants._

_Her head's throbbing. Memories haunt her. Her first kiss with Stefan. The way Damon's hand felt on her waist as he twirls her around in her royal blue Miss Mystic Falls gown. Oh, how she wishes she'd stop spinning. _

_How much she'd missed Stefan while he was with Klaus. Missed their easy laughter, his shoulder to rely on, his dancing leaf-green eyes. But then she longed for Damon's misty grey ones flickering around the room, trying so hard not to look at her. The raw passion that had pumped through her veins the time she'd kissed Damon in that motel…_

_The phone-call today. _"I care about you Damon. Which is why I have to let you go."

"Maybe if we had met first…"

_She doesn't know what she wants._

"_Well that's not true. You want what everybody wants." _

"_What? A mysterious stranger who has all the answers?" She's smirking and it's contagious because suddenly he's smirking too._

"_Let's just say I've been around a long time. I've learned a few things." _

_Everything about this has suddenly transformed into something entirely flirty. But she's not about to change that. With a knowing look on her face, she challenges, "So Damon, what is it that I want?"_

"_You want a love that _consumes _you."_

"The problem's Damon… when I'm with him, it just consumes me."

_She wants to cry._

"_You want passion. And adventure. And even a little danger."_

_She met him first._

* * *

She gasps. Her eyes bulge.

_Air_.

Wait… air?

Stefan is standing over her, his forehead crinkled with worry. He licks his lips. "Elena… are you okay?"

Someone has removed her sweater, but her soggy tank-top still clings to her skin, as well as her jeans. She's in an indescribable discomfort. She wrings out her hair and water drips onto her already-damp pillow.

"…Is Matt?"

The ghost of a grin twitches the corner of his mouth. "Yes… a little water-logged - but fine."

For a moment, relief overtakes her. But then she recalls all the other problems waiting in line for her stress over. "What happened?"

His smile fades. He looks down at her with an such an unreadable expression. "...You're a vampire, Elena."

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**AN: ****Reviews mean the world to me, please make my day a little brighter and leave one! (:**


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